OK peeps, I realize that we’re pushing 11:30pm here on the East Coast but it’s been a busy day here for me. I stumbled out the door this morning almost an hour late (typical) and into the car for my 3 hour trip north where I landed at one of my most favorite places on earth. I’m writing to you from a peaceful room at the Norwich Inn in Norwich, VT, listening to Lionel Richie’s Tuskegee croon in the background, taking in my first day at King Arthur Flour’s Blog and Bake event. I couldn’t be more excited to be here and to be getting prepped for 2 more days of baking with the pros at King Arthur Flour!
I’ll be dedicating a couple posts over the next week or two to this event so I won’t go into too much detail here but I just wanted to quickly share how much I adore the concept of small workshops. There are 12 bloggers from around the country here with me and of the ones I’ve met so far, it’s been awesome. Unlike at larger conferences, we’ve had the chance to sit down and chat (complete with profiteroles for dessert) without feeling rushed to be in 6 different places at the same time. We worked in teams to build and test a recipe in the King Arthur Flour kitchen today. There aren’t business cards being pushed in my face. People aren’t clamoring for swag. We’re here because we want to learn from the best and I expect that the next two days will only get better as we get our hands dirty and get to know each other better.
Annie and Josie have both posted about their experiences in Charleston at Helene Dujardin and Clare Barboza’s coveted photography workshop and the three of us agreed during our trip to Richmond in February that these small blogging workshops are where it’s at. Don’t get me wrong, large conferences definitely have their place and purpose (in all fields) but I feel like there’s so much to be said about feeling comfortable with a small group, about an experience being hands-on rather than the passive-participant experience.
What are your thoughts on small blogging workshops or conferences vs. the mega-conference?
I didn’t realize that smaller conferences still existed! I know for me, I’d prefer it because I dont’t have a big blog but woud live to still learn w/o feeling intimidated by a bigger conference!
Hi Tara,
I’ve been enjoying your local flare as I’m just north of you in Hampton, NH, and have visited many of the places you’ve written about in Newburyport. Not only do I think the small blog conference is a spectacular idea, but what is the delicious looking picture here? I would love to know and have the recipe. Is it one of the dishes you’ve tested? If it’s coming up in a post, I can wait.
Thanks for your wonderfully written prose and great recipes. My husband and I quite enjoyed your breakfast pizza from a few weeks ago.
Best,
Heather
Heather: Yep, I’ll be posting about it soon – it was too good not to but needs a little tweaking first. 🙂 And I’m so glad you love the breakfast pizza! Kyle will love to hear that other people really do make and like his ideas. Thanks so much for touching base!
Thanks, Tara! I’ll anticipate your tweaked version, and we will look for you next time we are out in about (probably with our golden retriever, Vienna, so domesticated and New England-y, we’ve become) in Newburyport. Keep up the great work!
I haven’t had the opportunity to attend a conference that small, but I do see how I could really enjoy that.
I have been to medium size and large conferences and I do love Type-A for the fact that they heavily discourage outside parties and because of it you really get to know the people at the conference since everyone isn’t leaving to go somewhere else.
Stopping by from NaBloPoMo.